American Man's Incredible Transformation Proves It's Never Too Late To Get Ripped

Life really does begin at 40.

American Man's Incredible Transformation Proves It's Never Too Late To Get Ripped

The general consensus suggests that once you hit a certain age, it becomes nigh on impossible to get into scintillating shape. The Harvard Medical School says that after you hit 30, your heart’s capacity to pump blood around your body drops by 5-10% per decade and that guys in their 40s naturally begin to lose muscle, so any weight gained is, more often than not, fat.

It can be all too easy, then, to accept nature’s plan for you and to not bother trying to fight it. But that way of thinking should be a thing of the past if this image of Jason Parrish – @gentlemanjacked – is anything to go by. Charting his fitness progress over a couple of decades, it’s clear that Jason hasn’t given up on his quest for total ripped-ness, transforming his body from big to downright huge.

It’s a slow process of course, with him needing 20 years of dedication to achieve his physique. Whether or not you believe he achieved this figure with or without the help of steroids (which of course is not something to aspire too), the sheer transformation is still impressive.

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Not to mention: though many commenters accuse Jason of juicing, supplement specialist Modex has previously told DMARGE not only is it impossible to know for sure if someone is on steroids just by looking at them, but:

“Regardless of which route taken, you would need to be training just as hard to get the result you are aiming for, it’s just that one has a much longer list of warnings.”

But what if you don’t start your body transformation until later in life? Another man, in particular, is living proof of – and a strong advocate for – being able to get ripped, fit and healthy in your middle-age.

Speaking to New York-based nutritionist Max Lugavere, 54-year-old Rich Roll came to fitness late in his life (at least, serious levels of fitness), but he is now a fully accomplished ultra-endurance athlete who has successfully completed some of the most gruelling races on the planet.

 

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Admitting to Max that he did involve himself with some form of fitness and exercise during his University years (he was a keen swimmer in the 80s while at Stanford University), it wasn’t until he was in his “mid-40s” that he became an ultra-athlete.

Rich’s back story shows he battled with drugs and alcohol leading up to his 30s and a day before his 40th, he found himself unable to walk up a simple flight of stairs.

It was this moment of defeat that spurred him on to turn his life around. He immediately adopted a vegan diet and began putting in the hours to shed the fat and become the ultra-athlete he is today.

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“I knew how to push my body, I don’t know if you’re familiar with what it’s like to train as a swimmer at a certain level, but you’re putting in like 20,000 metres a day”, Rich begins telling Max.

“I’m a workhorse and I had a certain amount of talent as a swimmer, but there were plenty of swimmers who were much more talented than me”,

However, Rich went on to reveal the mindset that allowed him to overcome the obstacles in his path,

“I learned quickly and early as a young person that I could bridge that talent deficit gap by outworking the person next to me.”

 

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“So I developed this capacity for load, like, endurance load. And I knew how to do that as a swimmer so when I got interested in endurance sports, I didn’t take the time to educate myself what it would mean to excel as a triathlete”,

“I had this engine, and it was a matter of tapping back into not just those practices, but I think that endurance machine runs latent throughout your life, like if you’ve done it in the past you’re able to connect with that again much more easily than somebody’s who’s doing it for the first time.”

That last sentence does indeed spark an interesting dilemma. What if you’re 40 – 50 but have never run a 5k before, or have lifted heavy weights? It’s not impossible to get started, although, if you’ve previously dabbled with exercise you’ll have a helping head start.

Ultimately, it comes down to your mindset, something change expert Andy Anderson has previously detailed to DMARGE.

“If you shower every day, why aren’t you focusing on having a good internal dialogue and a positive narrative every day? Those things are as important as showering, but we don’t generally pay attention to them.”

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